


This rage that lasts a thousand years (Will soon be gone)

by TheHeartOfTheStar



Series: Breathless Nights As This [2]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Agatha Christie's mysteries, Bromance, Crack, Crystal and Rog are bffs, Dork Lovers Server Challenge (Queen Band), Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-27 17:56:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20050168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHeartOfTheStar/pseuds/TheHeartOfTheStar
Summary: At any other time, the drummer would have minded that he was only wearing a kimono, jeans and reading glasses. But now, the situation was dire. He looked around and spotted a group of roadies having a smoke. Sure enough, Crystal’s bald head and stupid sunglasses were there.





	This rage that lasts a thousand years (Will soon be gone)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to Annieapple24, because she keeps reading and making awesome suggestions even when it’s midnight and she is exhausted <3 
> 
> Title taken from It's a Kind of Magic by Queen

When Roger opened the book to look at the list, half of the names there had already been crossed off. And right at the bottom of the list, in red ink, right beside Lady Westholme’s name was written _She’s the murdered_. He gasped in horror.

He had barely started reading this book two nights ago. He hadn’t had time to cross _any _name yet! But there were only so many people who knew he read Christie’s stories, much less had access to his books. So this had to be…

“CRYSTAL!” Roger shrieked, stomping his way out of the bus. At any other time, the drummer would have minded that he was only wearing a kimono, jeans and reading glasses. But now, the situation was _dire_. He looked around and spotted a group of roadies having a smoke. Sure enough, Crystal’s bald head and stupid sunglasses were there.

The group went silent at his angry approach. Roger stomped his way right up to his assistant and shoved the book up his face.

“What’s this?!” he gritted out, holding the book open.

“A book” Crystal’s smirked and lifted the fag to his lips again. One of the roadies laughed at that. Roger turned a murderous glare at him, and a tiny part of him was satisfied when the kid choked up on his stupid laugh.

The drummer turned to Crystal again. The technician was stepping on his cigarette now, shoving his hand on his pockets. Roger gritted his teeth at the other man’s nonchalance.

“I just thought you might appreciate knowing in advance how it ended.” Crystal said with an indifferent tone, pushing the book Roger was still holding up away from his face.

And with that, everything clicked into place. So _this_ was Crystal’s revenge, the rotting sod. Roger felt his anger flare-up. He made a choked sound at the back of his throat, and for a second the drummer considered very seriously punching Crystal’s ugly mug. On the one hand, he deserved it. On the other hand, Crystal would one hundred percent punch him back, and they were in front of a bunch of new roadies. His reputation as a badass couldn’t afford it.

Compromising, he pushed Crystal hard on his chest and turned back towards the bus. His kimono was dramatically flaring behind him, and he knew Freddie would appreciate the whole theatricality of the moment.

“Let me know what you think about the others” yelled Crystal somewhere behind him. Roger stopped in his tracks. _Had he done this to all of his books?_ With an angry shriek, he turned around and threw the book right at Crystal’s head. It hit the other right on, with an awfully satisfying thud.

“I’m gonna sue you for workplace harassment!” shouted Crystal, but the drummer could hear laughter in his voice. Climbing up, he slammed the bus’s door as hard as he could.

Almost always, they could agree on Freddie being the most melodramatic of them all. He lived for histrionics and theatricality. But his boyfriends weren’t really that far behind when it came to drama. Roger would, of course, deny it, but when the situation required it, he would beat even Freddie.

So now, having been _betrayed_ by his own flesh and blood, Roger had curled up with a frown and a pout and had rejected his soulmates attempts at lifting up his spirits.

At some point, Phoebe, bless him, had brought him a giant carton of ice cream and a bag of fried chips. Halfway through the ice cream, Roger had realized that there was no way for Phoebe to know this was the drummer’s comfort food. That meant this food had been sent by Crystal through Phoebe. And that had made Roger so mad he had almost thrown the ice cream across the room. _Almost_.

Straining his ear, he could faintly hear John on the phone. He had refused to talk to any of the boys, and he had refused to talk to Jim too. Even if he wanted to. At least Jim would understand and sympathize with him.

“…threw the book at his head… yeah, broke his sunglasses…” he heard John laugh at that. John had such a pretty laugh, really. “…oh, please! Rog had it coming, Jim! …fire Crystal? Not a chance…”

Roger burrowed further under the blankets, shoving a spoonful angrily into his mouth. John laughed again. And the drummer wanted to be annoyed at the sound, but he really couldn’t.

“…besides, you can’t fire your best friend from being your best friend” Deaky said wisely. Roger rolled his eyes, even when no one was there to see him do it.

As much as the drummer was annoyed at his assistant, the tour had to go on. Brian said they were being childish, Deaky said they should talk about it instead of brood about it, Freddie had thought the whole thing was hilarious. At any rate, Crystal and Roger weren’t really on speaking terms.

“_John tells me you and Crystal are breaking up_” was the first thing Jim said to him over the phone three days later.

“John is an old gossipy woman” Roger said, taking a bite of toast. “And we are not a couple!”

“_So you keep saying, yet you two go on vacation together an awful lot_” the gardener laughed, and Rog could hear Delilah meowing heartily in the background. “_I don’t have much time to talk, but I wanted to let you know your new books got here today_”

Roger frowned around a mouthful of bread. 

“What are you talking about?” he asked as soon as he was able to swallow

“_Oh. I thought you had ordered them?_” the drummer could hear the confusion in his boyfriend’s voice. “_Seeing as the others were ruined and everything_”

“What books?” now Roger was the one feeling very confused. He hadn’t ordered any books, and correspondence always arrived at the studio, never the house. So who could have sent this?

“_Christie’s_” there was some rustling on the other end “_The Mystery of the Blue Train, The Murder at the Vicarage, Murder on the Orient Express... hey, don't we have that one twice already?_”

Oh.

“_Roger? You still there?_” he heard Jim faintly. The drummer was mostly worried about not choking on bread because that would make awful headlines.

“What? No, no, yeah, I’m here- Just thinking” Roger replied quickly, as soon as he could talk again.

“_Funny you say that, I was thinking too_” Jim started to say, but then had to stop to tell Delilah something Roger couldn’t quite catch.

“My, my- look at us, both _thinking_. Brian would be proud” Rog teased, absently playing with the crumbs on the plate.

“_Asshole_” Jim crackled over the phone. “_I was _thinking_ maybe I could help you_”

“With?”

“_Well, these books are here, you’ve got none there. So what would you say if I offered to read some for you?_” Jim asked, like it was the most normal thing to offer. And sure, Roger knew Jim liked to take care of them. But that didn’t mean the drummer had gotten used to this kind of care. 

Roger was embarrassed to admit his eyes teared up a little at that. Back home, Jim would read for him at night. They never talked about it, but the drummer’s eyesight wasn’t getting any better. Still, they usually read whatever Jim was reading.

It’s not that his other boyfriends neglected him or anything. It’s just that this was such a Jim thing to do. No one but Jim would ever offer to read Agatha Christie for him, different time zones and everything.

“I’d say I’d love that.”

He wouldn’t have let anyone else but Jim read for him anyways.

The next morning, Phoebe brought him his coffee. The drummer told him he wanted Crystal to bring it to him. He could see his soulmates’ worried glances, but no one said anything. It wasn’t like Roger made it a habit to be an abusive boss or anything.

“His Lordship wanted to see me?” Crystal asked with his hands on his hips. Roger almost smiled at the nickname Crystal only used when he was annoyed at the drummer’s antics.

“There’s a race next Saturday, and we will be really close by” Roger said shoving the newspaper into Crystal’s face, pointing at the information there. “I trust you can arrange for us to get there and back”

It was an olive branch. They both knew it.

“We are using your money to pay for this trip” growled his assistant, but smiled anyways.

“Don’t we always?” Roger laughed. He felt unexpectedly relieved, and he could just feel his partners relaxing too.

“I’ll have you know I bought those books with my own paycheck” Crystal said with a snort, and Roger smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> I know, guys. I know you are waiting on the very last chapter of Children. Good news is that it’s pushing 7k already, and it´ll probably be done before Sunday. 
> 
> In the meantime, I give you this silly thing that I wanted to write for a few days already, mixing a bit my love for TayTay and my undying love for OT5. 
> 
> If you wanna know who Crystal is, I srsly recommend you check out Crystal's tales of his time with Queen, that you can read here:  
http://www.queenpedia.com/index.php?title=Crystal_Taylor
> 
> In case you are curious, the fight started over Terminator spoilers.


End file.
